DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OPERATIONAL BRIEFING
(Tampa, Florida)
Presenters:
General Tommy Franks, Commander, United States Central Command
Air Vice Marshal G.E. "JOC" Stirrup, British Coalition Contingent Commander
Friday, December, 14, 2001
GEN. FRANKS: Well, it's been a productive week. It started on Sunday when the Bucs won
-- the Bucs won their game. I guess we get another chance this weekend with the Bears.
Well, our opposition forces in fact have moved into Kandahar. Currently, United States
Marines occupy the Kandahar airport in Afghanistan.
The Friendship Bridge has been opened up in Termez, and so the land bridge now is
functioning from Uzbekistan down to Mazar-e Sharif, which is good for the flow of
humanitarian assistance products. Additionally, routes are open now through the Khyber
Pass, as well as down in Quetta, which gives us additional capability to move humanitarian
supplies. I think as of this morning, we had moved about
25,000 tons of humanitarian supplies into Afghanistan so far this month.
Now, we still see pockets of Taliban in several places inside Afghanistan, out in the
vicinity of Shindand, also in the vicinity of Kandahar. In fact, we suspect that there are
some pockets of resistance in and around Kandahar itself. Also, northwest of Kandahar, up
in Helmand Province, we believe that there are some residual Taliban elements.
As all of you know, our opposition forces are in the midst of a pitched battle, a pitched
fight, in the Tora Bora vicinity south of Jalalabad. Steady progress up to this point.
Steady progress. Very dangerous work. And we have a lot left to do.
I think at this time, I'll ask Air Marshal Joc Stirrup to join me again, from the United
Kingdom, and we'd be pleased to take your questions.
First, here in Tampa, please.
Q Yes, General.
GEN. FRANKS: Yes, sir?
Q Warren Elliot (sp) with Fox 13. I guess the big question still is, where is Mr. bin
Laden? There's been a lot of speculation that the intensity of the fighting in Tora Bora
means he must be there. What's your view of that, sir?
And I have a follow-up.
GEN. FRANKS: Okay, the follow-up will be fine. I'll give you a short answer to your first
question, and I'll use the words that my secretary uses, because I think they're great --
where he says, "Are you familiar with the chicken in the barnyard?"
The fact is that we don't know what we don't know. The suspicion is that we have a group
of al Qaeda forces in the vicinity of Tora Bora. That's where we see this major fight. One
receives all sorts of information indicating perhaps UBL remains in the Tora Bora area,
perhaps in Pakistan. We don't know what we don't know, but the focus of our effort right
now is this pitched battle in the vicinity of Tora Bora.
Your second question?
Q What was your reaction, personally, sir, to the videotape? What were your thoughts of
that?
GEN. FRANKS: I'll keep -- I'll keep my thoughts on the tape to myself. I think what's much
more important is the thoughts of the people of the free world, the thoughts of people
around the world who were able to see the tape, and I'll let each of them form their own
opinion, sir.
Also, Tampa. Another one, please.
Sir?
Q Can you give us any idea -- your estimate of the number of forces you still face in the
Tora Bora area? Is it dozens or hundreds or thousands?
GEN. FRANKS: It's very difficult -- and I won't try to dodge your question -- it's very
difficult in that kind of terrain to know exactly how many enemy forces we are facing. The
estimates -- I'll tell you candidly -- the estimates that I've seen have ranged from 300
up to a thousand, and it could be more, and it might be less. But I've seen that range,
and it seems to me to be as good -- as good as any, as an estimate.
Okay, to the Pentagon.
Q Suzanne Malveaux with MSNBC. First of all, General, can you clarify: Did you just refer
to Osama bin Laden, UBL, as perhaps
being in Tora Bora or Pakistan? Is that what you said? Can I be clear on that first point?
And I have a follow-up.
GEN. FRANKS: Yeah. Yeah, Osama bin Laden -- what -- my point was that we receive a great
many reports. I think that it's well reported by media in the area of Tora Bora that one
will hear suggestions that bin Laden may remain in Afghanistan, possibly in the Tora Bora
area.
Also widely reported is the possibility that -- or speculation that bin Laden may have in
fact moved to Pakistan. That's what I was referring to. And at this point we simply don't
know where he is.
Q Sir, if I could simply follow up here, are you saying that the evidence that Osama bin
Laden is in the Tora Bora area is based on either sightings or communication from bin
Laden? Are you saying it's based on the lack of evidence that his anywhere else? And are
you suggesting the possibility that he has left the country -- left the country?
GEN. FRANKS: Well, I wouldn't suggest the probability, I guess I'd say, that he has left
the country. Certainly it's a possibility that bin Laden has left the country. It's -- I
think we've said all along that there are many, many, many crossing points. And it is true
that our efforts to get at the al Qaeda network there and this group of al Qaeda people in
the vicinity of Tora Bora are being much assisted by the Pakistanis.
The -- it -- what would cause one to say either he is in the Tora Bora area, vicinity of
Jalalabad, or he has left? And obviously we use all sorts of technical means to gain
insights into where he may be. We also listen to what these opposition leaders on the
ground have to say, because they each have their own intelligence capability. And so when
one looks at all these sources, then what happens is, you see all sorts of conflicting
information, and I think that's why we always say you just don't know what you don't know.
And so it's probably not a good idea to say with some certainty where he is. But we know
where our current fight is, and that's in the Tora Bora area.
Q General Franks, Bob Franken at the Pentagon, from CNN. Operating on the assumption, your
hope that he in fact is in the Tora Bora area and that -- perhaps may be captured, do you
have a plan in place and can you share the plan with us, to some degree, what you would do
if in fact you captured him, how you would remove him, what you would do with him?
GEN. FRANKS: Yes, we certainly do have a plan in place for either the capture of bin Laden
or the capture of any of the other people which you have seen on our list of what we call
the top 20 or the top 40 al Qaeda and Taliban leadership personalities.
Yes, we do have a plan in place for what we'll do if we -- if they come into our
possession. And no, Bob, I wouldn't describe it to you.
(Pause.)
Did you have a follow-up, Bob?
Q Well, I do, but you're not going to answer it, so -- (laughs). (Laughter.)
GEN. FRANKS: Oh, come on, sir, go ahead. Give me a try.
Q Well, in a general sense, in a general sense, would he be removed to a U.S. ship? That
kind of thing. Can you give us any sort of general sense of what you would do under the
circumstance of Osama bin Laden or somebody of that caliber?
GEN. FRANKS: Right. And that is a fair question. We have the possibility, obviously, to
keep detainees inside Afghanistan at one of several locations. I think we've said all
along that Mr. Walker has been detained down at Rhino, so we obviously had the capability
to detain at the Rhino location; we have the capability to detain at the Kandahar airport
certainly, also; and we have the capability or the ability to move to a holding position
offshore on one of our ships. And I won't tell you which one of those courses we might
take, depending on the personality, but in each case, the people that we come across will
be held in one of those places.
Back to Tampa. Please?
Q General, you say you don't know what you don't know, but could you describe the process
of eliminating areas that -- how do you consolidate what you do know, and go through a
process of eliminating areas that he might not be, and what will be the satisfaction to
your extent that you have found either bin Laden or his chief lieutenants?
GEN. FRANKS: Okay, that's a good question.
(To staff) Let me ask you to pull the map up here, and let me walk over to the map just a
second.
I think most of us are familiar with Afghanistan, and so I won't make a big thing of it,
but let me talk to you about how we get a sense of where the pockets are and then how we
go about clearing or
looking into the pockets. As you know, when we started this exercise, the whole of
Afghanistan was essentially under Taliban control. And then you all know, and so I won't
belabor it, about the fall of Mazar- e Sharif up here in the north, and then Kunduz, and
then over here Taliqan, in fact actually from east to west toward Kunduz. And so then this
started to collapse, and along with it, the area started to collapse, and then we got over
here in Herat, the same thing, and then Herat down towards Shindand, and then very
recently up here toward Kandahar, then down to Spin Buldak.
And what happens when you do that -- we have our Special Forces people, with these
opposition leaders in each one of these areas that I talked about. And so what happens is
that various tribal leaders and organizations will begin to join the opposition leader as
one of these areas becomes taken. So what happens is that our people on the ground, then,
get visibility into the activities or we gain situational awareness of areas sort of in
concentric circles of ever- increasing diameter.
So when we -- like in the case right now, we know what we know about Kandahar, but until
we get a sense, through the opposition leaders, Karzai and Shirzai, who are in the city of
Kandahar, we won't know whether they believe that the tribal leaders out around Garmabak,
Kelat, and so forth, have become very, very cooperative. And so it begins like this, and
then it continues to grow, and our people on the ground, in conjunction with these
opposition leaders simply go out and look. And that's where our situational awareness
comes from.
Q Sir, if I could just follow up to that.
GEN. FRANKS: Yeah.
Q Obviously, if you're talking about forces jumping sides, and there are Taliban forces
that are on the ground who may be blending into the general population -- when you're
talking about getting one person or 50 people, that could be a very narrow search. So are
you doing a house-to-house search with your Special Ops?
GEN. FRANKS: I will say in some cases, there have been house-to- house searches. And in
some of the cases where there have been house- to-house searches, we have had some of our
Special Forces people, along with guides from these opposition leaders, as they have gone
through not just house to house, but building to building. And we go out of our way to
deliberately go to known and suspected al Qaeda hideouts and safe houses and sites, to go
through all of the materials, and to do a thorough search for documents, and so forth, in
each one of these areas. And so, yes, when we do that, that does involve our people.
Yeah?
Q General -- Tampa Tribune. I wanted to ask, Jane's Defense is reporting that 3rd Army
Headquarters from Ft. McPherson, Georgia, has deployed to Kuwait.
GEN. FRANKS: Right.
Q How does that play into ongoing operations?
GEN. FRANKS: Good question, quick answer.
Unified Command, like Central Command, essentially has its own Army element, its own Air
Force element, its own Marine element, its own Special Operations component, its own naval
element.
For -- in our area of responsibility, our land commander or our Army component commander
is headquartered in peacetime in Atlanta, Georgia, and that's 3rd Army. That's ARCENT.
And so as we get -- as we have a larger and larger force involved over in our area, it
becomes necessary to have our command elements positioned forward. And so our command
element for our Army forces over in the region, commanded by ARCENT, demands that we bring
our headquarters forward. And so that's what happened. And that unit traditionally
headquarters in Kuwait, and so it's really not an unnatural thing. Our naval component
command is over in the area, our air component command is in the area, our Special Ops
component, and so forth. And so this was just a normal evolution of command and control.
Back to the Pentagon, please.
Q General, Thelma Le Brecht with AP Broadcast. I wanted to ask a question about the
circumstances of the Marines who were -- or the Special Forces who were injured earlier
today in eastern Afghanistan. Could you give the details of that, what they were doing,
how they were injured, and give a little bit more on what the special forces are doing
there in terms of being engaged in combat? And I would like a follow-up.
GEN. FRANKS: I will say, at this point, I do not believe that we have had any American men
or women in uniform injured today. And so that is -- that's my current belief.
At the same time, I'll not put out of question the possibility that we may have had people
injured, because as I said, the business around Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan is a very
-- is very dangerous business. So my reporting right now says that we have not had any
American soldiers injured today, but I don't discount the possibility at this point.
Your second question?
Q Yes. It was about the Marines in the airport at Kandahar. They apparently were trying to
secure the airport, but I understand
there was some sort of problem there. Can you explain what the latest is in securing that
airport and making certain that planes can get in and out?
GEN. FRANKS: We went into Kandahar in -- essentially in two echelons. Last evening we
marched a Marine element through Kandahar and out on to the airport for the purpose of
securing the airport to make arrangements to reopen it, so we can use the airport both for
staging for our combat operations ongoing and certainly also to have a hub for
humanitarian assistance, as we continue to open that into the interior parts of
Afghanistan.
Then, the second element of that Marine force closed at a little bit later time, and it
just, very simply, joined the first serial or the first force that moved into Kandahar
airport. Now, those Marines are being very, very careful, because we want to be sure that
Kandahar is secure. We want to be sure that we, in fact, are tied in with these opposition
leaders -- Mr. Karzai, Mr. Shirzai -- as we continue to try to open that airport. And so
that's probably the most up-to- date information that I could give you on Kandahar and the
Marines.
Q John McWethy with ABC News. Can you help us with a description of the tactical situation
in Tora Bora? Would you describe whoever or whatever is in the end of that valley as
being, in essence, surrounded? And describe the intensity of the combat that you see
there.
And I do have a follow-up, sir.
GEN. FRANKS: Sure.
(To staff) Let me see that map again, please.
I'm not sure how well it will show up on this scale map, but I'll give a shot to what
you're describing. This is the city of Jalalabad, and this area right down here is the
area that we call Tora Bora. In Tora Bora, there are two principal valleys; there is the
Agam Valley and there is the Wazir Valley, and both of those valleys generally run north
and south, and along the line from Jalalabad to the point where these valleys hit a ridge
line, and when you go over the ridge line, you're inside Pakistan. The browner part of
this map here is Pakistan.
Now, as you go into these two valleys, you will find that -- obviously, along the
Pakistani side, the Pakistani forces are providing assistance to this effort. And so in
the south, we see Pakistani forces on these -- oh, valleys, on these approaches, that can
leave Afghanistan and move into Pakistan.
Then, when you come out of the Jalalabad area, we have opposition commanders who in fact
are moving from north to south, and it sort of becomes a hammer and an anvil. Now, the
forces that are involved in this activity are also over on the western side, and also over
on the eastern side. And so, when one says that this al Qaeda pocket appears to be -- I
don't know -- "surrounded" probably is not a terribly good word, but the view of
the opposition leaders on the ground is that this al Qaeda force is contained in that area
that I described.
Does that mean that this cordon is not porous and that no one can escape? No, it certainly
does not mean that, because this is really rough, mountainous country. But it does mean
that the view of those on the ground is that there is containment of this al Qaeda force
in the two valleys that I named.
Your follow-up, please?
Q Have you taken any al Qaeda alive in this combat situation? Number one. And number two,
you allegedly pulled out some tapes and documents from some of the caves that you have
been into. Can you address both of those?
GEN. FRANKS: Yes, sir. We have taken -- we have taken al Qaeda prisoners in this fight.
And yes we have removed documents and other sort of evidentiary matters from this complex
that I described on the map. The answer to both is yes.
Back to Tampa, please.
Q General, have you any interesting tapes in addition to the one that has been released?
GEN. FRANKS: We have -- we have taken, as I've said, a bunch of evidence out of these
tapes (sic) -- or out of these safe houses and so forth. And to be absolutely honest with
you, I don't know whether we have taken additional VHS tapes and so forth. I know we have
taken a lot of documents. We have an awful lot of information that we're going to have to
sift through, and it's probably going to take us quite a while to sift through it. But the
direct answer is, I don't know if we have any more tapes.
Q Do the documents tell you anything new that you didn't know before? Or can you describe
what the documents contain?
GEN. FRANKS: Any time one takes from a battlefield, documents out of places where the
enemy has been before, they're always interesting. And obviously, there will be
information contained in those documents. In terms of whether that information relates to
past activities of al Qaeda or whether it relates simply to the disposition of al Qaeda
forces inside Afghanistan, I really wouldn't want to comment at this point.
Back to the Pentagon, please.
Q General, this is Pam Hess with United Press International. The prisoners -- the al Qaeda
prisoners you mentioned, are they in U.S. custody, or are they soon going to be in U.S.
custody, either at Rhino, somewhere else in Afghanistan, or on a ship? And can you tell us
what the battle damage is from the ongoing fight in the valleys there? How many bodies are
you counting after the bombing raids?
GEN. FRANKS: Actually, and truthfully, I learned a valuable lesson many, many years ago in
Vietnam, and that is that our formations really don't count bodies. And even if I had a
sense, I don't think I would give it to you.
I will say that a lot of people have lost their lives in these valleys, in this al Qaeda
pocket.
In terms of the prisoners that I described, we have not yet taken any of these prisoners
from the opposition leaders. And when we do take prisoners from them, or detainees from
them, we'll either keep them inside Afghanistan, as I said earlier, or we'll take them to
sea for interrogation and exploitation.
Q General, Matt Kelley from the Associated Press. What can you tell us about the transfer
of John Walker to the Peleliu today; why was that done; when he might be returned back to
the United States?
GEN. FRANKS: I can't tell you when he may be turned back to the United States. I will tell
you in fact we did remove him from Afghanistan today and he is currently on a ship at sea;
as you said, the Peleliu. We'll continue to control him on the Peleliu until a
determination is made regarding whether we handle him within the military community or
whether he is handled on the civilian side. And that determination has not yet been made.
But he is on the Peleliu, safe and being well cared for.
Back to Tampa. Yes, ma'am
Q The fact that you've not found bin Laden or 20 to 40 of his top lieutenants, does that
suggest that they're all holed up somewhere together, or that they have all scattered in
different directions? Or is there any way to tell?
GEN. FRANKS: Many chickens in the barnyard.
Q (Off mike.)
GEN. FRANKS: No, we really don't know. I suspect, and this is -- I shouldn't speculate,
but on this point I will. I suspect that there will be some of them together in maybe twos
and threes, and there will be some of them who remain alone. We suspect that over the
course of this fight, we probably have killed some people on this list and we simply don't
know it. And that's the reason that we stay away from numbers, and I think that's the
reason that we have all not talked about specific personalities who may have been killed
up to this point. And so that's probably the best answer that I can give you. We suspect
some of them are gone and we just don't know.
Q General, basically, when fighting decreases in the country, what are plans for an
occupying force?
GEN. FRANKS: I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.
Q Are there plans for any kind of American occupying force in Afghanistan?
GEN. FRANKS: No, we will not have an American occupying force in Afghanistan. We started
this, Operation Enduring Freedom, based on several principles, and the first of those
principles was that we would destroy the terrorist network inside Afghanistan, and that we
would take out this illegitimate government of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and that we
would do our very best to provide humanitarian assistance to people in that country who
have not been treated very well for a long, long time.
We have never believed that we would remain inside Afghanistan, and to this day, I will
tell you the same thing. We will not remain in Afghanistan, although I suspect we will
remain engaged -- we, our country, will remain engaged with the people in Afghanistan to
try to help them have a better lot. But, no; military forces from the United States are
not going to be an occupying force in Afghanistan.
I lost count. Are we -- one more here, or are we back to --
Yeah?
Q General, any idea when the fighting in the Tora Bora area may be completed? Are you
close to ending that there?
GEN. FRANKS: I honestly don't know. I know that -- I know that we're making progress
there; these opposition groups and our people are making progress. But if you look at a
detailed map of this terrain, what you find is that rather than being terribly horizontal,
the terrain gets to be rather vertical. And so while we may be moving -- or while these
forces may be moving only one or two kilometers in a given day, that is a substantial
distance, based on how much they're moving up or down while they're doing that.
And so it is very difficult for us to say when we'll finish the work in this. This is a
reasonably large area, and it has been developed over time as a substantial cave and
tunnel, fortress-style complex. And so it's going to take us a while to get through.
Back to the Pentagon.
Q General, John Diamond (sp), Chicago Tribune. Any progress being made in the western part
of the country in the search for Mullah Omar? And are your forces at all involved in
looking for this mysterious sheikh who appeared with bin Laden on the videotape, and is
that person believed to be still in Afghanistan?
GEN. FRANKS: John, did you ask the secretary that question yesterday about that sheikh on
the tape? I read something in the transcript.
And to tell you the truth, I saw him the first time on that tape, and I truly don't know
who he is, and I don't know whether he's named in the list of al Qaeda that we're looking
for at this point or not.
I mean, I just honestly don't know.
With respect to Omar, if you think about the point I made a minute ago, that said the way
go about looking for Taliban or for al Qaeda is geographically to secure an area -- in
this case, Kandahar, which is where we have the last reasonable confirmation that we knew
where he was -- and then we work in concentric circles through contacts with the leaders
in the region, or in a given area, to go to places that may give us leads as to where he
is -- and right now we simply don't have a good lead; the last we had was that he was in
the Kandahar region, and I think I'd leave it at that -- we're simply looking for him, and
we're going to keep looking for him as long as it takes.
Q Yeah. Esther Schrader with the Los Angeles Times. Thank you. You were kind enough to
detail where opposition forces are around the Tora Bora area and where U.S. forces are
around the Tora Bora area. Would you be kind enough to help detail for us some of the
makeup of those forces, what kind of equipment they're using currently, what kind of bombs
they're dropping -- you know, are we using daisy cutters today? -- what kind of planes
we're flying in that area?
GEN. FRANKS: In Tora Bora, we're using -- first, the opposition group on the ground is
armed with the same kinds of weapons that the opposition groups have been armed with
throughout the course of this fight in Afghanistan -- Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled
grenades, some tanks and so forth. And so that's how the opposition groups are armed.
Our people, our Special Forces people, are armed with small arms, and they provide the
ability to leverage an awful lot of air power in this -- in the area.
We are dropping earth-penetrating bombs. We call them JDAMs. We're dropping laser-guided
bombs. This operation, in terms of that air power, has been consistent since we first
started this operation.
And so those are the types of weapons. We have dropped what we call BLU-82, B-L-U-8-2.
That is what you call the daisy cutter. And so we have also had that 15,000-pound munition
in this fight.
Back to Tampa. Sir?
Q General, there was a report on Al-Jazeera today that we're using napalm at Tora Bora.
Can you comment on that, sir?
GEN. FRANKS: Right. We're not using -- we're not using the old napalm in Tora Bora.
Q Do you have any sense of how long the al Qaeda munitions will hold out? I mean, is there
any idea how long they can keep fighting with the rifles and the grenades that they have?
GEN. FRANKS: Not long enough.
Q A month? A week?
GEN. FRANKS: I don't know how much ammunition they have in there, but my first comment
really was an honest one. We can wait longer than they can, and we'll maintain pressure on
this pocket of al Qaeda until they are ours.
Back to the Pentagon.
Q General Franks, it's Tammy Kuppermann (sp) with NBC news.
You mentioned that the opposition forces had taken some al Qaeda prisoners. How senior are
these prisoners? Who are they? And also, anything about -- you said earlier that no U.S.
soldiers were injured, but were there other coalition forces injured this morning?
GEN. FRANKS: Yeah. There have been, I believe, other coalition forces injured. And of
course, there are -- there are Americans on this battlefield, as we know, because of some
excellent reporters and so forth up there. And so I wanted to be careful to say I'm not
sure that we didn't have any Americans hurt in this, that -- just that my reporting has
not indicated that we had any American troops hurt up there.
And I'm sorry, I missed the first part of your question. Say it again.
Q It was about the al Qaeda prisoners in opposition-force custody. Can you tell us who
they are or how senior they are?
GEN. FRANKS: Actually, I can't right now, because as we speak, it's the middle of the
night over there, and it will take until tomorrow for the opposition leaders who have --
who have these
prisoners to get them rounded up so that we can get a look at them and see -- and see who
they are. So right now, I really don't know.
Back to Tampa.
Q General, with the situation yesterday in India, is there any suspicion that bin Laden
might have fled to the Kashmir region?
GEN. FRANKS: There are -- the best direct answer is, I have read reports, and I'm sure you
have, too, that we have bin Laden in a variety of -- in a variety of countries in the
region. I've read reports that speculated that perhaps bin Laden had moved to the Kashmir
region. I mentioned Pakistan a minute ago, and then the view of people on the ground that
he remains in Tora Bora. And so the honest answer is, we really don't know.
Now, as you asked me to speculate whether or not he may have been behind something in the
-- in the situation a day or so ago with India, the only thing I can say about that is
that I have not read anything that would lead me to believe that at this point.
I mean, it certainly is possible, but I have not read anything that would lead me to
believe it at this point.
Sir?
Q General, there's been some speculation that you might spend the holidays in the AOR. I
know we don't talk about your movements, but I know that might be in your heart, sir. Any
comment about that possibility?
GEN. FRANKS: I'm hopeful that I'll have an opportunity to spend Christmas with the troops.
Back to the Pentagon.
Q Yes, General Franks, Jeff Goldman at CBS News. We wanted to just clarify first -- and
then I have a question of my own -- if the al Qaeda were captured just today,
specifically?
GEN. FRANKS: Yes, captured today. Right.
Q And also, when do you expect a multinational peacekeeping force to arrive in
Afghanistan, and what do you foresee as their role, and how does the U.S.
"liase" with them in that mission?
GEN. FRANKS: As you know, the inauguration of the interim government in Afghanistan is
slated for the 22nd of the month here in a week or so. The expectation is that this
international security force would be in the region of Kabul as quickly as it can settle
itself, determine the lead nation, determine who all the participants in that activity
will be, and then I would expect sometime certainly before the end of the month that that
force would begin to move in to provide for a secure environment inside Kabul.
The relationship that we have suggested with that force is that it should be in some form
of command arrangement with our coalition force that we have headquartered here in Tampa
to be sure that we don't ever get a conflict between the objectives of these
organizations, one for security, the other for the destruction of al Qaeda. So that's the
suggestion that we've made.
Okay, back to Tampa.
Q What will happen with the captured al Qaeda? What's sort of the long-term plan for them?
How will they be questioned, debriefed? Where will they be detained?
GEN. FRANKS: Well, they can be detained right inside Afghanistan. We can have access to
them, leave them, for example -- we could leave them under opposition-group control, we
could access them and interrogate them; or we could take them and shelter them and control
them ourselves in one of -- in a place like Kandahar airfield or out at Camp Rhino; or we
could take them out to sea and interrogate them out there.
Now, exactly which of those three alternatives we'll use will depend on our immediate
assessment of them when we do what we call screening. We'll screen each one of these
detainees and determine which ones are interesting to us, and then we'll do a variety of
things with them, depending on how interesting we find them.
Q At some point, would any of them be released?
GEN. FRANKS: It is possible. I mean, I wouldn't foreclose it. I just don't know. They
certainly won't be released until we have an opportunity to talk to them.
Q General, are there any additional security concerns with the end of Ramadan?
GEN. FRANKS: I don't know that I would say security concerns related directly to the end
of Ramadan and to the several days of Eid al-Fitr, which will be immediately following
Ramadan. But certainly, we watch very carefully over in this region what the security
environment and the security situation is all the time. And so we're doing that now.
I have given some instructions to our people over in the region to adopt force protection
conditions, which relate to unspecified information, but it just seems prudent to me to
take force-protection measures that are related both to the ending of Ramadan, as well as
to the various non-specific indicators that we see, which I think are being reported daily
here, even in our own country.
So we're very, very attentive to that.
Q General, if I may, for the air marshal. We understand, of course, the U.K. is going to
lead this peacekeeping force -- at least that's what reports say. Do you have any comment
about that? And can you give us some sense of when you may be ready, when you may be able
to go ahead?
MARSHAL STIRRUP: Well, what the U.K. has said is that it's prepared in principle to lead,
initially, the interim security assistance force for Kabul. There was a coordination
conference, which was hosted in London today, and I know that went extremely well, and
potential participating nations attended that. And now, a number of people are going to
head out to Kabul to do the reconnaissance on the ground, talk to the people out there,
and report back on their findings.
But there are a lot of details to be sorted out with this interim security assistance
force, and it's important that we get it right. It's important that we get everything
agreed between all of those that are going to participate in it, and, of course, that we
get agreement of all of those in Afghanistan, because this is there to assist them, to
help themselves, and it's only going to be there for a limited period.
So until we get those details sorted out, we can't really say whether or not the United
Kingdom will lead it, who will be part of it, and when it will be in place. But as the
commander in chief has said, the intent, certainly, in accordance with the appendix to the
Bonn agreement, is to get it out there and to get it assisting the Afghans as soon as
possible so that it can help the interim authority do its job.
GEN. FRANKS: And let me mention also one of the great benefits of having this -- of having
these coalition members here at MacDill Air Force Base. Since I have the chance every day
to work with Joc and since his cell has a chance every day to work with me, work with our
staff, it does -- it goes a long ways into keeping us welded as we move through this,
whether it's a security assistance force or whether it's the Enduring Freedom force that
we headquarter out here.
In fact, when Joc said the -- made his comment, it reminded me that for this meeting that
took place today, or is it -- or is taking place today in London, we had a cell led by one
of our flag officers from here go over, and they're attending that meeting. And so the
coordination and the liaison from beginning to end of this operation has been quite
powerful. The cooperation truly is terrific.
Back to the Pentagon, please.
Q General, Jim Dow (sp) from the New York Times. Has John Walker Lindh's legal status
changed at all, now that he's on sovereign U.S. territory, aboard ship? And for instance,
is the U.S. military now affording him some sort of legal counsel?
GEN. FRANKS: His status right now is, he is -- he remains a detainee. He is being treated
the same way that we would treat an enemy prisoner, because -- that does not mean he is an
enemy prisoner, but that does guarantee him treatment that is equal to the Geneva
Convention. It provides him medical care and so forth.
But no, he has not yet -- his status has not yet been determined. And when it is
determined, then, as I said, he can remain within the military jurisdiction by law, he can
be passed over to the civilian side and the attorney general, the FBI, and so forth. And
that determination simply has not been made yet.
Q General Franks, Laura Evans, Fox 5, WTTG. Is John Walker providing any valuable
information? If so, can you share?
And do you have any idea what's happening inside Tora Bora as far as the food supply,
water supply -- you talked about the weapons supply -- how long they might be able to put
up with the pressure?
GEN. FRANKS: Right. I really -- Laura, I really wouldn't want to say what Mr. Walker has
provided. I've read an awful lot of speculation, and I know you have, too, about
information that he may
have provided. And so, given his current status, I really wouldn't want to comment on what
we have gained from Mr. Walker.
The second part of the question, with respect to Tora Bora, the water, food, and so forth
-- they don't have enough.
They don't have enough. They are not able to bring in ammunition or food or water. And
that is what has given these opposition leaders in the area to believe that they have the
area -- I won't say "secured," because it certainly isn't -- but it leads them
to believe that they have the area controlled. And so shortages of water, shortages of
food and shortages of ammunition.
Yes?
Q Chris Wright (sp), General, Fox News Channel.
Can you take one more try at painting a picture of the battle in those valleys? You have
the opposition leaders heading south. Are the al Qaeda defenders pulling back from cave to
cave? Are they on the ridge? Are they in the valley? And are U.S. forces on the ground
directly engaged in the fight?
GEN. FRANKS: The answer to every question is yes. They are in the valley; they are on the
ridges; they are in caves; they are, in fact, moving back -- "back" being to the
south. And yes, we do have -- we have members of this coalition on the ground with these
opposition leaders up on the front lines involved in that fight. So yes.
Back to Tampa.
Q Can you describe a little bit more about the end plan, if you will, because you've
described closing in on these forces and closing in on the pockets of resistance there.
Presumably, you will inevitably do that. But if you are having difficulty identifying the
one person on the videotape and other Taliban leaders or al Qaeda leaders, then can you
describe what happens after you have won the ground war, if you will, in Afghanistan, and
where you go from here? Because certainly, you have a committed, zealot force against you,
and they can go into other areas to resume what they were doing inside of Afghanistan.
What do you do after you close out operations in Afghanistan?
GEN. FRANKS: I have to -- I have to say that this is going to take some time. And I -- and
I don't know how much time. It's going to take months, for example, and I don't know if
that's one or five or, you know, 20. But it's going to take months to go through the
detainees that we have, to assure ourselves that, in fact, we have done what our president
asked us to do and what the world asked this
coalition to do, and that is to destroy this network inside Afghanistan.
So we're not in a hurry to do that. We want to work very methodically through the
documents, through the evidence, through the people -- to be sure that we have done what
it is that we set out to do. And that's one of the -- that's one of the benefits of the
strategic patience which I see every day, the strategic patience which I see every day
that says "This will take as long as it takes." I just keep reminding everyone
that this is not likely to end -- this is not likely to end tomorrow.
If we rush this, then it would be the same as, had we rushed this to begin with, we would
have hurt too many of the wrong people, we would not have gotten our job done, we would
not have been responsive to what Enduring Freedom is all about. And so patience and calm.
And this is a tough part of the work right now because it's very personal when we're
involved with these people one at a time to be sure that we have all of the ones that we
want.
So we're going to stay with that. The resolve remains, and we'll be there for some -- for
some time.
Q Sir, just to follow up?
GEN. FRANKS: Please.
Q How do you know it's over?
GEN. FRANKS: That's a very difficult question. I think each day, we assess where we think
we are in terms of having destroyed al Qaeda inside Afghanistan. One thing we know for
sure is, as long as we have pockets of Taliban resisting or pockets of al Qaeda resisting
or organized force of any kind that looks like remnants of this terrorist network, then it
won't be over. Now, on the positive side, one can think through all sorts of scenarios,
the capture of someone or the death of someone, or the capture of five or 10 or 20. I
don't think we would at this point want to try to say if numbers one, three, 11, 23 and 27
are either killed or captured, that's enough. I don't think we would want to do that. I
think what we want to do is very methodically get the leadership, go through the
documentation and satisfy ourself that there is no core of this cancer remaining inside
Afghanistan. So sir, that's our long-term view.
And with that, thanks very much. God bless America.
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